Rajan Bhattarai

Everything you need to know on Cloudflare's new DNS 1.1.1.1

1.1.1.1 is a fast and private way to browse the Internet. It is a public DNS resolver, but unlike most DNS resolvers, 1.1.1.1 is not selling user data to advertisers. The implementation of 1.1.1.1 makes it the fastest resolver out there. The addresses of 1.1.1.1 are:

IPv4

1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1

IPv6

2606:4700:4700::1111 / 2606:4700:4700::1001

Why use 1.1.1.1 instead of an ISP’s resolver?

The main reasons to switch to a third-party DNS resolver are security and performance. ISPs do not always use strong encryption on their DNS or support DNSSEC, which makes their DNS queries vulnerable to data breaches and exposes users to threats like man-in-the-middle attacks. In addition, ISPs often use DNS records to track their users’ activity and behavior. These resolvers don’t always have great speeds and when they get overloaded by heavy usage they become even more sluggish. If there is enough traffic on the network, an ISP’s recursor could stop answering requests altogether. In some cases attackers deliberately overload an ISP’s recursors, resulting in a denial-of-service.

DNS Hijacing

These downsides and risks of ISP recursors can be mitigated with a secure recursive DNS service like 1.1.1.1. With security features like bleeding-edge encryption and the fastest resolution speeds, 1.1.1.1 provides a better overall user experience.

What makes 1.1.1.1 more secure than other public DNS services?

Some other recursive DNS services may claim that their services are secure because they support DNSSEC. While this is a good security practice, users of these services are ironically not protected from the DNS companies themselves. Many of these companies collect data from their DNS customers to use for commercial purposes. Alternatively, 1.1.1.1 does not mine any user data. Logs are kept for 24 hours for debugging purposes, then they are purged.

Image Credit: Cloudflare Blog

1.1.1.1 also offers some security features not available from many other public DNS services, such as query name minimization. Query name minimization diminishes privacy leakage by only sending minimal query names to authoritative DNS servers.

What makes 1.1.1.1 the fastest recursive DNS service?

The power of the Cloudflare network gives 1.1.1.1 a natural advantage in terms of delivering speedy DNS queries. Since it has been deployed on Cloudflare’s 1000+ servers worldwide, users anywhere in the world will get a quick response from 1.1.1.1; in addition to this, these servers have access to the over 7 million domains on the Cloudflare platform, making queries for those domains lightning-fast.

DNS Speed Comparison

The best part of 1.1.1.1 is that in addition to being the fastest and most consumer-centered DNS, it’s free to use. See how you can setup 1.1.1.1 in 5 minutes.

Setting Up 1.1.1.1

As per the developer instruction from Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 can be set up in different devices as follows:

1. Android

Step 1: Open up Settings.

Step 2: Click on Wi-Fi.

Step 3: Press down and hold on the name of the network you are currently connected to.

Step 4: Click Modify Network.

Step 5: Click the check box called Show Advanced Options.

Step 6: Change the IP Settings to the option called Static.

Step 7: Remove any IP addresses that may be already listed and in their place add:

1.1.1.1 | 1.0.0.1 | 2606:4700:4700::1111 | 2606:4700:4700::1001

Step 8: Click Save. You may need to disconnect from the Wi-Fi and reconnect for the changes to take place.

2. Linux (Ubuntu)

Step 1: Click System > Preferences > Network Connections.

Step 2: Click on the Wireless tab, then choose the Wi-Fi network you are currently connected to.